Good news: Little Adalyn had her surgery to repair her Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia yesterday. So far she's doing well. Her biggest hurdle is her lungs. CDH makes it so all of her organs were up in her chest cavity, which restricted the amount of growth her lungs could do. Continued prayers that Ady's lungs will be able to do their job would be greatly appreciated.
I met with the voice specialist on Monday. He went over my test results with me, and they were well outside of normal limits even though I did the PH probe while still taking my reflux meds twice a day as ordered. He said that since they're not working, he wanted to refer me onward to a surgeon to have the Nissen Fundoplication done. According to http://www.umm.edu/general_surgery/nissen_fundo.htm, this is what they'll be doing:
"During the fundoplication surgery, the surgeon improves the natural barrier between the stomach and the esophagus by wrapping a part of the stomach known as the gastric fundus around the lower esophagus. This prevents the flow of acids from the stomach into the esophagus, and strengthens the valve between the esophagus and stomach, which stops acid from backing up into the esophagus as easily. This procedure is often done using a laparoscopic surgical technique. It can also be done as traditional (open) surgery."
From my reading, the surgery itself isn't the difficult part, it's eating afterwards. I'll be in the hospital for 1-3 nights depending on how things go. I'll be on a liquid diet to start and then very gradually increase the thicknessess of the foods I eat over a period of several weeks. Apparently if you try to eat normally too soon, you pay for it. Possible side effects include losing the ability to burp and losing the ability to vomit.
I'm really nervous about this, but since the meds aren't working I don't see that I have much of a choice in the matter. It's either do this and have my voice recover, or not do this and continue to have vocal damage. The voice specialist scoped my throat again on Monday and said that other than the swelling caused by the acid, my vocal cords were in perfect shape. That means that once they're no longer being bathed in acid all the time, they should recover.
As a singer, this is really a no-brainer. I'll have the surgery and protect my voice. I'm just scared about the whole process and everything that it will entail. This is going to be a permanent change to my anatomy, after all. I'm going to have to live with the results for the rest of my life. I'm not even 30 yet, so that is quite a long time to live with side effects if I end up with them.
On a professional level, things are looking good for this school year. It looks like my student teacher will be coming to me during the first half of the fall semester, which is perfect since I need to have the surgery. I also got a letter in the mail regarding a proposal that the PE teacher I work with and I put together for a session at this organization's big conference in December. Our proposal was accepted, so we'll be doing that in December. The only potential hurdle on a professional level for this year is our new administrative team, but I've been hearing good things so I'm hopeful.
4 more days of summer freedom, and then it's back to the grind.
I met with the voice specialist on Monday. He went over my test results with me, and they were well outside of normal limits even though I did the PH probe while still taking my reflux meds twice a day as ordered. He said that since they're not working, he wanted to refer me onward to a surgeon to have the Nissen Fundoplication done. According to http://www.umm.edu/general_surgery/nissen_fundo.htm, this is what they'll be doing:
"During the fundoplication surgery, the surgeon improves the natural barrier between the stomach and the esophagus by wrapping a part of the stomach known as the gastric fundus around the lower esophagus. This prevents the flow of acids from the stomach into the esophagus, and strengthens the valve between the esophagus and stomach, which stops acid from backing up into the esophagus as easily. This procedure is often done using a laparoscopic surgical technique. It can also be done as traditional (open) surgery."
From my reading, the surgery itself isn't the difficult part, it's eating afterwards. I'll be in the hospital for 1-3 nights depending on how things go. I'll be on a liquid diet to start and then very gradually increase the thicknessess of the foods I eat over a period of several weeks. Apparently if you try to eat normally too soon, you pay for it. Possible side effects include losing the ability to burp and losing the ability to vomit.
I'm really nervous about this, but since the meds aren't working I don't see that I have much of a choice in the matter. It's either do this and have my voice recover, or not do this and continue to have vocal damage. The voice specialist scoped my throat again on Monday and said that other than the swelling caused by the acid, my vocal cords were in perfect shape. That means that once they're no longer being bathed in acid all the time, they should recover.
As a singer, this is really a no-brainer. I'll have the surgery and protect my voice. I'm just scared about the whole process and everything that it will entail. This is going to be a permanent change to my anatomy, after all. I'm going to have to live with the results for the rest of my life. I'm not even 30 yet, so that is quite a long time to live with side effects if I end up with them.
On a professional level, things are looking good for this school year. It looks like my student teacher will be coming to me during the first half of the fall semester, which is perfect since I need to have the surgery. I also got a letter in the mail regarding a proposal that the PE teacher I work with and I put together for a session at this organization's big conference in December. Our proposal was accepted, so we'll be doing that in December. The only potential hurdle on a professional level for this year is our new administrative team, but I've been hearing good things so I'm hopeful.
4 more days of summer freedom, and then it's back to the grind.
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